Search

It’s now been a little over one month since our big grocery shopping trip and, though it looks like we are definitely going to get through the eight weeks I’d estimated our haul would last, we both are craving fresh vegetables. That is the major downfall to doing a giant shopping trip all at once: though it maximizes savings on store reward cards, it limits diet somewhat if you stick to it rigidly. Milk, bread, and fresh veggies only last so long and generally are things a family cannot do without.

This week we needed to make a run for staples — in our world that means a half gallon of milk, coffee creamer, a loaf of bread, a dozen yogurt cups, eggs, cereal and cereal bars, etc. — which ran us just about $40 without any store savings or coupons. I also splurged on a trip to Pittsburgh’s Strip District, stopping at a year-round, indoor/outdoor vegetable market for some winter veggie goodness. All in all I spent $15.31 at Stan’s, coming home with a shopping bag nearly bursting with:

one pound of kale

three stem tomatoes

one large red onion

two large garlic cloves

two 1.5lb acorn squash

one 3lb spaghetti squash

two pounds of turnips

two pounds of beets

a pint of blueberries

Between these two shopping trips, I’ve added $0.16 to each meal served over the course of an eight week period, meaning each meal is now costing me $1.25 per person. My yearly food expenditure currently totals $416.69 for a two month supply of food for two people, or $104.17 worth of food per person a month. According to the US government’s food stamp criteria data that I posted back in July of last year, we are still $0.25 under what is deemed a “low income” grocery budget — eating primarily whole ingredients in homemade meals, none of which have taken more than an hour to prepare.

RSS

Featured Posts

It’s now been a little over one month since our big grocery shopping trip and, though it looks like we are definitely going to get through the eight weeks I’d estimated our haul would last, we both are craving fresh vegetables. That is the major downfall to doing a giant shopping trip all at once: though […]

I have been obsessing over the idea of shrimp and grits since seeing it served as a brunch item in a New Orleans episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. How could anything combining those two foods possibly be bad? So I set to work researching recipes, and in the end I pulled what I […]

It’s a cold, snowy day here in Pittsburgh — the kind of day that begs for warm, hearty comfort foods eaten in pajamas by a fire. So I decided to take my first crack at a longtime favorite dish: Shepard’s Pie. It’s barely healthy — and definitely not low calorie — but it is filling […]

January 2nd was big shopping day at our house, and I do mean BIG shopping day. The contents of the refrigerator were reduced to a quarter of a half gallon of milk, two pounds of butter (left over from Christmas baking), condiments, and a few sad and lonely onions floating around in the crisper. The […]

In the past I’ve tried to refrain from plugging specific products and chains here at the Grocery Project. However, I’m a firm believer in giving some credit where credit is due — and Trader Joe’s definitely deserves some accolades. It’s difficult to argue with cheap gourmet foods that are ethically sourced and (most of the […]